World Briefing: September 20, 2024
Israel has carried out extensive air strikes on southern Lebanon targeting positions of the Iranian-backed group, Hezbollah. The military says its warplanes struck more than 100 rocket launchers, as well as a weapons depot. This comes as Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant says "we are at the start of a new phase of the war.” The Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has vowed to inflict retribution after explosions of communication devices used by the group killed more than 30 people and injured thousands. The White House has said it is concerned about a potential escalation in the Middle East. The UN Security Council will discuss the crisis later on Friday - BBC
The United Nations urged de-escalation on Friday after the Israeli military struck roughly 100 sites across southern Lebanon overnight, the latest signal that the slow-boiling, 11-month-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah could escalate into full-scale war. The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon said on Friday morning that there had been “a heavy intensification in exchanges of fire” across the Israel-Lebanon border over the previous 12 hours and that it was in touch with Hezbollah and the Israel military to urge calm. - NYT
Russia’s military command had anticipated Ukraine’s incursion into its Kursk region and had been making plans to prevent it for several months, according to a cache of documents that the Ukrainian army said it had seized from abandoned Russian positions in the region. The disclosure makes the disarray among Russian forces after Ukraine’s attack in early August all the more embarrassing. The documents, shared with the Guardian, also reveal Russian concerns about morale in the ranks in Kursk, which intensified after the suicide of a soldier at the front who had reportedly been in a “prolonged state of depression due to his service in the Russian army”. Unit commanders are given instructions to ensure soldiers consume Russian state media daily to maintain their “psychological condition”. - Guardian
The sum of 160 million euros from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets would be allocated by the EU to meet Ukraine’s urgent humanitarian needs for this winter, Reuters reported. Russia has knocked out about 9 gigawatts (GW) of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which was the “power equivalent of the three Baltic states”. The EU aimed to restore 2.5 GW of power generating capacity and would increase exports to supply 2 GW of electricity to Ukraine.
The ten year-old Japanese-citizen attacked on his way to school Wednesday in Shenzhen, China has died from his knife wounds. Between this murder and the June Suzhou attack it will not be surprising if there is an accelerated withdrawal of Japanese and Japanese firms from China, says analyst Bill Bishop
A star New York Magazine political reporter has been placed on leave after disclosing a personal relationship with the former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In a statement posted online on Thursday night, New York Magazine said that its Washington correspondent, Olivia Nuzzi, had recently acknowledged to the magazine’s editors that she had engaged in a relationship “with a former subject relevant to the 2024 campaign while she was reporting on the campaign.” The outlet said the relationship was “a violation of the magazine’s standards around conflicts of interest and disclosures.” A person familiar with the matter confirmed that the relationship was with Mr. Kennedy, a former Democrat who ended his independent run for president in August and has since endorsed former President Donald J. Trump. Mr. Trump’s campaign has named Mr. Kennedy to his transition team should he win the election in November. New York Magazine said it had reviewed Ms. Nuzzi’s work and found “no inaccuracies nor evidence of bias.” - NYT
Barron Trump, Donald Trump’s youngest son and a freshman at New York University, has become an unwitting TikTok star with the rise of a new genre of videos—shakily filmed clips of him moving around campus. The videos are largely taken from surreptitious angles by the 18-year-old’s NYU classmates and set to songs like Chamillionaire’s "Ridin," according to WIRED, which described the sightings as Sasquatch-esque. Some have scooped up hundreds of thousands of views, but none so far has shed much light on Barron’s character or personality, much less whether he is majoring in aquatic biology. “I feel like Barron could’ve gone to any school, but the fact that he chose one of the most liberal schools in the country speaks volumes,” Grace Rowley, one NYU student who posted about the former first son on TikTok, told WIRED. “I was shocked and super intrigued that he would choose NYU. Would love to speak with him and would love to read his ‘why NYU’ essayʼ - Daily Beast
